Choujin X by Sui Ishida – Chapter 1 Review

“It’s something of an affliction”

“Tokyo Ghoul”, “Tokyo Ghoul:re” author Ishida Sui’s long-awaited new manga has come at last! And this time it’s an extraordinary battle action manga about “superhuman” beings who expresses the powers of different abilities while being human.

Ishida Sensei posted the announcement about the serialization, on his Twitter account yesterday. The first issue of the series in Japan is published digitally through the Tonari no Young Jump web service, while in English we can follow the manga free of charge via the Manga PLUS App from Shueisha or from Viz Media now.

What is Tonari no Young Jump ?!

Now before we dive into the story, there is something that I want to clear out first. Because I know many of you aren’t actually familiar with this magazine. Even I thought it might be a magazine that I haven’t heard of, so I looked it up and found out that “Tonari No Young Jump” is a free online magazine related to the Weekly Young Jump where you can read manga in Japanese for free every day here.

The concept of this site is to collect works of, both professional mangakas with high degree of perfection and amateur mangakas with potential, to present them online, as a spin-off manga website of Shueisha on the internet. It seems that it was made to expand opportunities. Yusuke Murata’s digital manga remake of One-Punch Man, which is also one of the most popular titles on this website, has been published here since June 14, 2012.

With that being cleared out of the way, lets come back to the review of 1st chapter of Choujin X now.

SPOILER WARNING: If you haven’t read the chapter yet, don’t read any further. I would highly encourage you to go and read the chapter and find out on your own before moving along. If you already have read the chapter then follow along without any worries.

A Quick Look at the Plot

As you might have already guessed from our intro of Choujin X, this is a supernatural battle-action fiction, set in a world where there are people with mysterious powers, who are called Choujin. Many of them use these powers for dishonest machinations and crimes. But there happens to be some people who are against it, like our protagonists of the series – Tokio Kurohara, a second-year high school student who lives in this city and aspires to be a hero, and his best friend Azuma Higashi. The two continued their activities to get rid of the villains infesting the town, but one day when they suddenly face the threat of a Choujin and accidentally come into possession of a substance that transforms their user into a Choujin, they decide to make a big decision to divide their destiny, they don’t hesitate…hesitate what ?

To know about that first let us take a look at the characters and few more things that will help us to get a clearer view of the story.

The Main Characters

First, we have Tokio Kurohara, a sixteen-year-old high school sophomore. He is a shy, kind-hearted, and good-mannered boy, who is always respectful of adults and his peers and is now living together with his father and his elder sister. He has a friend called Higashi Azuma whom he likes to call his partner and trusts him with his heart. When he was a kid, he was wandering around the Azuma, so he was nicknamed “Vulture Tokio” and everyone made fun of him. However, when he was told by Azuma that the vulture was “the tallest bird in the world, and they can fly higher than anyone else” he felt like it wasn’t too bad. Also in his room at his parents’ house, he has a picture of a vulture that he drew himself.

Next we have Higashi Azuma, another 16-year-old high school sophomore. His father is a great police officer. He has won five consecutive judo and karate competitions. He is also top in the class, and of course, he is quite popular among women. He has a strong sense of justice and has helped Tokio from being bullied when he was a kid resulting in him becoming a close friend of Tokio. He is also familiar with insects and animals and occasionally encourages Tokio by talking about them, he enthusiastically explains the story of pill bugs to Tokio. He saved a woman from a thug (Johnny Kiyoshi Takeyama) while returning home from school.

The World View and Superhuman abilities and How to have them ?

In this world, there is a race called superhuman, having abilities (different abilities) that ordinary human beings do not possess. In order to become superhumans with different abilities, ordinary human beings need to inject themselves with a special syringe.

Why did the main character Tokio become a Choujin ?

“Sometimes, to fight a monster you must become one!”

Azuma defeated Takeyama Johnny Kiyoshi who was attacking a woman. Kiyoshi became seriously injured. He had a broken arm, but he was revived by an injection which made him a soft Choujin. Later he attacked Azuma again as a Choujin to take revenge. Azuma’s attack on Takeyama was completely unsuccessful and he was unilaterally attacked and was about to die.

Tokio, who saved Azuma from the final attack, jumped into the sea with Azuma and escaped the situation somehow, but to confront the chasing Takeyama, they chose to inject each other with the syringe they found and become superhuman with each other at the same time. The next moment Tokio became a superhuman beast and defeated Johnny Kiyoshi Takeyama with a single blow. Tokio’s transformed appearance was that of a vulture. Meanwhile Azuma had fallen at Tokio’s feet, but even after being injected he was still lying down, not sure of what had happened.

This ends the first chapter.

Final Thoughts and Possibilities

“I want to draw the background and finish of this work by myself, so I will update it at my own pace, but I hope you can accompany me in your spare time.”

First of all, it feels great to have Ishida Sensei back.

Second, MANGA Plus specified through Twitter that the new manga series does not have a fixed release plan, new chapters will appear irregularly, depending on how the time of Manga-ka Ishida allows it. So that’s reassuring. We will not know exactly when the second chapter will be released, but I am just happy he choose to go with irregular serialization. He suffered too much from the weekly chapters in Tokyo Ghoul Re. An irregular cadence without a specific weekly or monthly schedule, the irregular serialization will help him organize his story at his own pace, meaning no pressure, no health issues, quality content, better art, and an improved fight choreography, I am all for it.

And Finally,

While there are already many battle based mangas about different abilities serializing now, and also the synopsis itself rather felt somewhat normal I would say with a bit of Tokyo Ghoul touches here and there, but personally I quite enjoyed it. The high-tempo development continued from the first chapter which was an overwhelming reading experience. The surprise at the beginning and end was also fun. The way the story started and that wholesome tone in the first half. I thought it was a heartful story of a farmer girl, but that sudden airplane terrorism after which the story began with the terrifying scene in which the little girl burns, that caught me completely off-guard. Some classic Ishida moment right there. It was also interesting how the first chapter ended with a cliffhanger scene that I am very worried about. Yes, I’m talking about Azuma. I’m wondering what happens after Azuma had fallen at Tokio’s feet. They are a dynamic duo and I liked them but that bit in itself makes me feel like they’ll eventually separate, especially depending on the outcome of Azuma taking the Choujin serum, laid out on concrete still while Tokio has is a bestial choujin. What I feel is, Azuma either won’t turn into a Choujin due to his genetics, or maybe he’s dead, or impaired because that’s just an unfortunate gamble with the Choujin serum.

Either way, this looks like it’s gonna be a wild ride and I can’t wait to read the second chapter from now on.

How did you like the first chapter of Ishida Sui’s Choujin X, be sure to comment below and let us know !